257 - Only So Much
“You don’t have to worry, you know. Sonata’s going to be fine.”
Nosey’s comment was enough to make Lex pause in mid-stride, stumbling slightly. “How-”
“-do I know you’re worried?” Nosey’s smile was only a shadow of her usual boisterous grin, but the similarity was still there. “Well, besides the fact that you freaked out when you heard that she’d left without you, you’ve glanced northward five times in the two minutes we’ve been outside.”
Lex huffed lightly, feeling vaguely upset at how completely she’d read him. “I was going to ask how you could be so sure she’s alright,” he muttered churlishly. As he spoke, he started moving again, closing the distance between himself and Severance. He could have simply reached out and grasped the scythe with his telekinesis to draw it to him, but he wanted to overlook the site of the battle from last night. Even so, he kept one eye on Nosey, unwittingly betraying his interest in her answer.
Still keeping herself pressed against him, she bit back a laugh at how transparent he was. But her grin faded away a moment later, and her eyes slid to the ground as she spoke. “Xiriel told me.”
Despite the fact that he was less than ten feet from Severance, Lex came to a halt again, giving Nosey his undivided attention. “What?”
Glancing around self-consciously, Nosey confirmed that nopony else was around them before she started speaking again, taking a deep breath. “When…when I was possess-…” She had to stop, and Lex felt a shudder run through her as she closed her eyes. Her distress was obvious enough that he wondered if he should do something to try and ease her anxiety, only to come to the conclusion that he had no idea what to do. But Nosey answered that question for him a second later, when her horn began to glow.
A matching aura instantly came to life around his right fore-hoof, and Lex struggled to maintain his balance as she raised it off the ground, causing him to lean against her more as a result. Even as he did, she pulled his leg around her shoulders, making him embrace her while one of her own forelegs copied the gesture and curled around him. The entire thing barely took a second, and Lex blinked as he found himself in a mutual embrace with the blonde mare. “Nosey?”
“I’m sorry,” she murmured, the tension in her voice audible despite her face being buried against his neck. “I’m sorry, just…please let me do this. Please.”
“Uh…sure.” If it had been anypony else, Lex would have shoved them away with a snarl. But coming from one of the few ponies he cared about, and knowing that Nosey’s bewildering actions were the result of what she’d suffered at Xiriel’s metaphorical hooves (even if he couldn’t understand why that was causing her to act like this), the combination of uncertainty and guilt was enough to override his natural inclinations, leaving him feeling awkward and self-conscious as he let Nosey do what she needed to. Glancing around, he felt certain that more than a few pairs of eyes were on them, even if everypony else was keeping well away from the edge of last night’s battle.
It took a minute before Nosey finally released him, and even then she made no move to separate her body from his, simply ending the hug with a soft sigh. “Sorry about that. I’m okay now,” she said with a smile that anypony else would have been able to identify as completely fake.
Lex, however, took her statement at face value. “How do you know Sonata is alright?” he prompted.
Nosey’s smile wavered for a moment, but she nodded briskly. “When I was possessed,” she began, keeping her voice level despite breaking eye contact with him, “Xiriel spoke directly into my mind. Most of what it said was j-just…just to be cruel, but it-” With visible effort, Nosey kept herself from falling apart. “It talked about the other monsters around Vanhoover. It mentioned the ghouls, and it mentioned the sahuagin and Tlerekithres-”
“Who?” Lex interrupted, alarmed at the unfamiliar name.
“The kraken,” explained Nosey. “The Great Lord of the Deep. Its real name was Tlerekithres.”
Lex’s eyes narrowed. “If it knew that…”
“They were working together,” nodded Nosey. “Not very much; it was more like they were using each other, but Xiriel made it sound like they were coordinating things, at least a little.” She looked back at him then, wanting to make sure her next point was as clear as could be. “But Lex, those are the only other monsters Xiriel talked about. The ghouls and the sea creatures. That’s it.” She waved a hoof toward the north. “There’s nothing out there that’s a threat to Sonata.”
“You’re sure about that?” pressed Lex. “You’re absolutely certain?”
“Yes. The closest it came to anything like that was letting it slip that it manipulated a few other ponies to keep Vanhoover cut off from the rest of Equestria – I don’t know who – but that’s all.”
Lex frowned, not liking the possible implications of that particular revelation, but there was nothing he could do about it now. Moreover, while Nosey’s testimony was informative, that didn’t mean it was necessarily iron-clad. The devil had been a skilled prevaricator and manipulator, and there might be other monsters out there that it hadn’t known about. But still…Lex couldn’t help but feel a tightness in his chest loosening as he weighed what Nosey had told him. Sonata’s going to be fine, he told himself, and although the anxiety didn’t completely go away, it regressed to tolerable levels. “Did it give you any other useful information? Anything at all?”
Nosey thought for a moment, then shook her head. Lex considered pressing her for a moment, but let it go. Nosey was a reporter; her special talent was to find pertinent information and disseminate it. If she didn’t think that she had any other useful information, then she was most likely correct. That, and he didn’t want to do anything that could cause her to break down again.
Instead, he turned his attention to Severance, idly floating a few feet away from him. Crossing the last few feet to it, he telekinetically took hold of the weapon and laid it across his back. “Report,” he demanded curtly. A moment later the scythe complied, though its report consisted of there being nothing to report; there had been no activity that it had detected during the night. Lex didn’t bother replying, instead turning his attention to the site of the pitched battle that had occurred here only a few hours ago.
Now that the sun was out, the full extent of the ghouls’ annihilation was plainly visible, and the sight was a gruesome one. Closest were the bodies of the undead ponies that had gotten past Severance to engage him and the others in battle directly; they were numerous enough that it looked as though someone had exhumed an entire graveyard and tossed the inhabitants haphazardly about. But as macabre as the piles of decaying bodies were, beyond them was far worse.
The field to the west of the camp had been splattered – there was simply no other word for it – with the remains of the ghoul army. Spreading out in a semi-circle that had to be over a hundred feet in radius, the ground was entirely hidden beneath what was left of the undead ponies. Some of them had merely been sliced in half, and Lex could see numerous intact torsos among the carnage. But those were the exceptions; the vast majority simply hadn’t been able to retain nearly as much cohesion in the face of Severance’s destructive force, their rotted bodies having been reduced to pieces. Heads, hooves, shriveled organs, and other body parts were strewn about chaotically, all spread among a layer of offal and gore.
Lex swept his eyes over all of it, inured to the horror of what he was looking at. We need to start the cleanup today, he decided. The stench was already starting to gather, thanks to the summer heat. By this time tomorrow it would be unbearable, and the presence of scavengers and disease would follow in very short order. First, he’d need to-
“Can we go?” murmured Nosey, and it was then that Lex realized she’d closed her eyes, not looking at the field of bodies in front of them. Giving a grunt of acknowledgment, Lex turned around, leading her away from the place. Opening her eyes as they headed back toward everypony else, Nosey gave a sigh of relief. “So, what happens now?”
“Now I put everypony to work,” replied Lex immediately. “The remaining bits will be divided up among teams who will be dispatched to all of the nearby farms in order to buy food. Meanwhile, others will be sent into Vanhoover to acquire more necessities. We’ll take more bits from some of the local banks to supplement our cash on hoof, as well as see what medical supplies can be scavenged.” He glanced backward briefly before he continued. “And shovels. A great many shovels.”
“Can’t you just make those with those black crystals of yours?”
“I could,” acknowledged Lex. “But they wouldn’t last for more than an hour, and recreating them over and over would be unduly burdensome.” Even if he channeled additional magic through himself, trying to make enough equipment to dig a mass grave of the size they’d need would deplete him long before they’d displaced sufficient earth, let along moved the bodies and subsequently filled the hole. Would that I could just invent a spell for this, he thought irritably, knowing that the current circumstances made such a prospect unfeasible.
Inventing a spell to increase his personal fortitude so as to channel additional magic through his body – allowing him to feed everypony the morning after he’d arrived here – had been inordinately difficult. With no materials or reagents to test the practical applications of his research, no supplementary materials besides his own notes to abet his mental calculations, no dedicated work environment in which to perform field testing, and numerous other suboptimal conditions working against him, it had been nothing short of miraculous that he had managed to succeed…and even then, that had only been due to his being personally familiar with the spell effect he was trying to create, having both seen it and experienced it before.
All of that…and it had not only still taken multiple days to complete, but it had resulted in his inflicting severe injuries on himself. To try and create a more powerful spell – one that could displace tons of earth – in less time, with less references and materials, since there was nothing like that on Xiriel’s scroll…it would be a complete waste of time and effort at best; at worst, it would court disaster. More than that, it would require him to ignore virtually everything else in the meantime, and that simply wasn’t acceptable. There were too many circumstances that needed his personal attention. Aria’s transmogrification being one of them. Another was that the ponies being led back into Vanhoover to gather money and supplies would be led by him personally; this time he’d allow no opportunity for some X-factor to injure more of his people-
“Um, Mr. Legis?”
Lex glanced over at House Call as the medical pony called his name, a hesitant look on his face. The sight of him brought something else to mind, another task that needed to be dealt with, and which – unlike so many others – could be taken care of immediately. “Bring Spit Polish to me,” blurted Lex before the doctor had a chance to keep talking.
The order clearly caught the other stallion off-guard. “I’m sorry?” He sent a glance at Nosey in a silent query for more information, but the mare shrugged and shook her head.
“Bring the would-be assassin to me,” repeated Lex. “I’m going to hand down his sentence right now.”
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Oh geez, right after Lex's popularity is the rise, he just has to pull this stunt and Sonata isn't around to do advise him though that's probably what I should already be expecting at this point. Looks like Nosey will have to do. She's not as bad as Drafty was in the hero worshiping so she's not as blind to his flaws and as a self-proclaimed ace reporter, she might be able to deter Lex from doing anything too drastic and damaging to his image, or at least, her view of him.
Speaking of Nosey, she seems to be getting back to some semblance of her former self, though having Lex by her side helps. However, I doubt the same can be said if Lex isn't there with her. Still, progress has been made and as long as there's no set back, she should be fine...hopefully.
This is an opportunity for him to show some development. I look forward to seeing how he handles this supposed Justice. It can be a make-or-break.
Currently Id assume the most evil thing Lex can do to Spit Polish.
Shovel.
Dig.
"I sentence you, to community service."
*gives him a shovel*
"start digging."
i really like this chapter Lex is taking time to think.
i have a feeling this is going to be interesting but i am not going to say how.
9050805 Nosey is pretty much "on deck" now to see if she can stop Lex from making the same mistake all over again. Exactly what she does, and whether or not it works, is completely up in the air. It'll be interesting to see if she's able to argue with him (since that seems like how it'd go if she tried to tell him not to punish Spit Polish harshly the way he did Garden Gate), considering that she's still in a fragile state and clinging to him in order to quell her persistent anxiety. But as you said, she does seem to be getting better, so perhaps that won't keep her from telling him what he'll probably need to hear?
Of course, this is all speculative; maybe Lex has learned something on his own? After all, Sonata did break the news to him a little while back that he frightened everyone by what he did to Garden Gate. More to the point, he recently realized that he misjudged her when she threw herself at the ghouls with no thought for her own safety, so maybe he'll start to put the clues together...?
9050827 Let's just hope Lex realizes that; if he doesn't, Nosey will likely have an uphill battle trying to convince him, and I'm not sure how much she's up for that in her current state.
9051152
9051192 Heh, that would be a rather awful, and yet apropos, sentence, wouldn't it?
9053298 The funny thing is, I know exactly what Lex will do - game stats and all - if he goes with the "harsh punishment" option. I tend to do that (i.e. think in game terms) for a lot of the story...but I won't say whether or not that means that'll be what happens.
9053742
True, Spit Polish, like Block Party and everyone else in Vanhoover was ultimately a victim of Xiriel's plot so Lex likely would have considered that.
But even if Lex decides to be lenient towards Spit Polish, this doesn't change the fact that he did try to kill Lex of his own volition and even though it was ultimately unsuccessful, that is not something one would forget so easily.
Still, if Lex decides to use curses again, we know that it won't necessarily be as extreme(to the ponies) as Garden's punishment so Lex could go for something that could make Spit Polish productive like treforce and Booster Spice suggests instead of languishing in his...oh right, Lex let him out of his cage already.
9053725
I think the titans in pathfinder are about the level of demi-gods/advanced outsiders.
Yes, I agree, that sounds exactly like what they would be doing.
Maybe. The trade off is the same level of knowledge, less risk, but considerably harder and more time consuming to piece together. Of course, you would be totally right to say that in game terms having longer library research checks without a chance of your soul being corrupted by concentrated evil is not an equal trade-off, that's getting into realism versus game balance.
But even if the 100,000 lesser volumes of [redacted] pieces of the lower planes don't have quite the same level of info as Tabris's books, I think they'd still have enough info on how to destroy an evil artifact. Maybe not horsey god evil artifacts though.
Oh, man, don't get me started on player puzzles character intelligence. I think this is driven by the idea that a lot of the purpose of the knowledge skill is basically to "money launder" meta-game knowledge so the characters have it.
I'll cop to having once said "I roll knowledge local 25 on that large green-skinned giant, what are its special defenses?" Right before I threw an alchemist's fire at a troll.
Or really Eclipse at all. If everyone can point-buy their own custom mix of powers, one power is not a clue as to what other powers a character might have. So a ranger with quarry might not have laser eyes at all!
Ironic and hilarious. I think 80% of writing Aria well is "is she making everyone around her grind their teeth? Then you're nailing it!" One of my favorite Aria scenes of all time was in a story by Justice4332 where he has Aria in a car with Applejack and Fluttershy, and she manages to get Fluttershy to violently attack Applejack in about 15 minutes.
I wonder if Aria has enough self awareness to realize that if anyone else finds out about Lex's deal (especially Sonata) they'll try and explain to him that its ok for Lex to let the deadline slip, and that's why she is trying to keep others away from him.
Oh man, I totally forgot about that! Yeah, I guess to an Equestrian a siren looks just similar enough to be exotic, the way humans find the image of mermaids attractive.
Hmm. I think Aria is so used to thinking of sex and attraction as a weapon that she hasn't even considered it for Lex yet. She acts attracted to him because he's powerful and it annoys Sonata. She has yet to ask herself if there are any other reasons.
Is this like the spells a spellcaster gets when leveling up?
I hope at some point Lex sets up some kind of independent magistrate. I think 80% of his public image problems stem from his much harsher code of justice, compared to the "live and let live" attitude of most ponies.
9054452 The thing to remember is that criminal justice is an extremely complex issue, not just in terms of things like practicality versus principle, or the breakdown between deterrence/rehabilitation/desert, but also because the differences between how ponies react to wrongdoing versus how we do is one of the very few sociocultural differences that we see in the show, even if it's never explicitly called out. Given that Lex tends to react much more aggressively toward wrongdoing even when the perpetrator makes a display of remorse, he's somewhat separated himself from mainstream opinions about how punishment should be handled in this regard...hence what happened with Garden Gate. That makes it questionable as to what he'll do here, and how it'll be received.
9054496
It's worth remembering that the whole idea of "CR 21-25 are quasi-deities, CR 26-30 are demigods" is a shorthand that one of the Pathfinder designers (I think James Jacobs) let slip on their message boards; it's not something you'll find in any of the books that I'm aware of.
The problem here is that a well-developed game system - and, for that matter, narrative progression - will find a way to have both, which is juxtaposed by the fact that characters (and, to some degree, players) are expected to try to leverage whatever they can in their favor. That's why you'd presume that a character trading off a minor resource (e.g. some extra time) in order to avoid a potential danger (e.g. powerful corruption) is simply a smart thing to do, unless there's some sort of external pressure that makes that a less favorable proposition. At the same time, that doesn't make for a very good story (and, if you're looking for a challenge in your game sessions instead of wish-fulfillment, then it doesn't make for much of a game session either; bypassing challenges is oftentime the smart thing to do, but that's actually a bit of sleight-of-hand in terms of game design: how you bypass a challenge becomes a challenge in-and-of itself, and so the adventure is now about how you accomplish that).
Again, I disagree. Part of this is abductive reasoning on my part, set up to support the sort of narrative setup that I want to see: if the angels had that information on hand, and it was easily accessible to any who wanted it (even if we discount the angels deliberately putting that information together and disseminating it themselves), then it stands to follow that we would already have seen evil artifacts be destroyed en masse. But there are still plenty of evil artifacts around. Ergo, this isn't the case. Hence, something about that premise is flawed. (For an amusing extension of this, consider that this is true, and is why there aren't more evil artifacts around; the ones we see now are the ones for whom the angels' knowledge is insufficient.)
That said, I find it easier to explain this by simply pointing out that the available lore simply isn't so easily accessible, even with the "but it's spread around ten thousand books (in this one readily-accessible library)" explanation. You can go to the Library of Congress, for example, but you aren't going to be able to find the precise locations of all of North Korea's nuclear facilities complete with blueprints, defense schematics, and guard breakdowns. Some knowledge simply isn't available, regardless of how good the research facility is.
There's no denying that there's an element of "your character grew up in this world, so a certain level of knowledge is just assumed" that's taken to be fait accompli for new characters. The problem with that particular proposal is there there's no real way to quantify that, which means that the Knowledge skill is trying to systematize something completely arbitrary. What's "known" is going to vary wildly not just from campaign world to campaign world, but even from place to place within a given setting, and that's not taking into account that some people will simply have more knowledge than others (sometimes wildly so) depending on their personal circumstances...though that last part can be simulated with the d20 roll. Even so, it's gotten to the point where, as you noted, it's become little more than a fig leaf to justify the fact that most players sit down with a fairly broad knowledge of monsters' abilities (which is what those skills tend to get used for the most) and other information anyway.
Which is another reason why I find that system to be preferable. The idea of unique character progressions isn't new to D&D; I still love the passage in PHBR2 The Complete Thief's Handbook that talks about "lone wolf" characters, who use custom classes developed via the DMG's class-building guidelines, and that such characters might have just an apprentice or two before they die off, likely taking their custom class with them. That suggests that character classes aren't so much a natural state of things as they are the product of in-universe darwinism, the end result of which is that the "classes" are just favored collections of abilities, making it essentially a point-buy system in disguise.
I'm not sure Lex's self-imposed deadline for changing Aria back is much of a secret; even if the exact date hasn't been made clear to anyone else, it's not like he's hiding it. For that matter, I suspect that Lex is fully aware of the idea that he could push things due to what's been going on. He just doesn't want to, since he'd take it as an admission of weakness on his part.
This dovetails into an issue that I've been very careful to dance around so far: The Sirens spent over a thousand years on Earth (since I don't find arguments for saying that the passage of time between Equestria and the EQG world isn't 1:1 compelling), with nothing to do and just enough magic to control the people in their immediate vicinity. Given their hedonistic and selfish natures, there's really no way to suggest that they weren't having a lot of sex during that time.
9054504
No. That has to be paid for under the Eclipse rules, since it's part of the actual class progression for each particular class, and Lex hasn't bought that. Rather, it's a reference to this.
I suspect most of it is simply from his inability to function in social situations, manifesting as a poor attitude. That he's so harsh about wrongdoing is something that's really only come up once before now, with Garden Gate/Fencer.
Hard labour until the mass grave is dug!
9221501 A lot of people did push for that.